In search of healthy and fun meals to feed my family, with an eye toward sustainable living.

Here you'll find recipes & ramblings about keeping my family fed with what's available in Alaska between local produce, a little bit of wild harvest, and the modern grocery store.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Cranberries at Thanksgiving

We like our cranberries here in the North, and this year there will be not just one, but 3 sauces at our Thanksgiving table.First, the traditional, standardCooked Cranberry Sauce2 c whole cranberries1 c sugar1 c water

Grind the raw berries and onion together. ("I use an old-fashioned meat grinder," Stamberg says. "I'm sure there's a setting on the food processor that will give you a chunky grind, not a puree.") Add everything else and mix. Put in a plastic container and freeze.

Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. ("It should still have some little icy slivers left.") The relish will be thick, creamy and shocking pink. ("OK, Pepto Bismol pink.") Makes 1 1/2 pints.

Maureen makes the most delicious cranberry relish. It has a bag of fresh cranberries cooked in 1 cup water and bring to a boil, add 1 cup sugar and boil 5 mins, pour that over a package of cranberry or raspberry jello, add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, a grated whole orange and apple (skin etc but not the core or the center pith of the orange), stir to mix and refrigerate till set.

About this blog

Borealkitchen is a blog by an amateur-- I simply enjoy cooking a variety of foods. I was inspired after we started getting a weekly CSA box last winter, which forced me to plan ahead more. This blog is my way of organizing menus and recipes, sharing my family's experiences, plus reflect on food-related issues. I also grow a garden, shop at Farmer's Markets as much as I can, and there's even a little bit of wild harvest as well...Philosophy: Good food, wholesome, mostly. My approach is more product-based than recipe-driven. By this I mean that I try to find something to do with what's in season: this week it might be an abundance of beets, cabbage or collard greens -- then I start searching for meals to incorporate them... I think of recipes as "starting points": when I start cooking, I just start improvising...

My RECIPES are rarely precise: I often just list ingredients ("Bah-humbug" to measuring, except for baking!). If I list recipes from a cookbook, I give the source and variations I've made. If a recipe came from a website, then you'll need to follow the link to the source for the "nitty-gritty" details of that recipe.

Feel free to comment or ask questions. Thanks for visiting!

About Me

I call Alaska home, but am originally from Germany. I'm incredibly lucky to have a job as a naturalist, teaching and hiking the great outdoors. My family:
The Prof (my husband);
Eldest (flown the coop);
Wolfman (teenage son);
Liesl (youngest pixie).